Ongoing Operations Hurdles Financial Struggle

Operations are ongoing at Ongoing Operations, said Kirk Drake, CEO of the Hagerstown, Md.-based CUSO which provides business continuity services to some 500 clients around the country.

What triggered that statement was a legal notice in the Hagerstown Herald Mail newspaper that announced a public sale of Ongoing Operations’ assets, held at the demand of creditor Clearsky Holdings which declared itself owner of a secured interest in those assets.

The sale was scheduled for Thursday at a law office in Woodland Hills, Calif.

Drake explained that in fact Ongoing Operations had hit a tough financial patch, due to financial difficulties suffered by an at onetime very large Ongoing Operations client – “not a credit union,” stressed Drake.

That client became unable to pay its bills and, in turn, Ongoing Operations had difficulties servicing notes it had assumed in its 2011 acquisition of Cloudworks, a provider of cloud based hosting.

Notes issued in that transaction were owned by Clearsky.

“Our board has been supportive of us throughout this process,” stressed Drake, who insisted, “These matters have been resolved.”

He added that no services provided to Ongoing Operations credit union customers had ever been interrupted as a result of these legal issues.

Drake added that he had been in extensive talks with the 20-plus credit unions that are owners of Ongoing Operations and that the resolution that has been reached with the creditor does not presently require additional capital from those credit unions.

“It is possible that it may at a future date,” said Drake.

At the time of posting this story, the attorney for Clearsky Holdings had not returned a reporter’s call requesting additional information about the asset sale.